Tom Cochrane Bio - Tom Cochrane
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Tom Cochrane Bio

Tom Cochrane was born in Lynn
Lake, Manitoba to Violet and Tuck Cochrane, a bush pilot. The family
relocated to Etobicoke, Ontario when Tom was four years old. He
purchased his first guitar at age 11 by selling a toy train set. In the
early 1970s, he was performing in coffee houses across Canada. He
eventually made his way to Los Angeles where he found a job writing
theme music for My Pleasure is My Business, a Xaviera Hollander
movie. Unable to find steady income from music, Tom
Cochrane returned to
Toronto where he drove a taxi cab and later took a job on a Caribbean
cruise liner to help pay the bills. Tom Cochrane went back to Los Angeles in
1976, trying to sell his songs to publishers but without success, and
returned to Toronto in 1977. Tom Cochrane walked into the El Mocambo club
one night in Toronto and came across a band of locals calling themselves
Red Rider. After an audition, they agreed to Tom
Cochrane joining the band
as lead singer and songwriter.

Tom Cochrane Bio

Tom Cochrane Pictures

After the Red Rider era, Tom
Cochrane set off on his soloist path again. In 1990, Tom Cochrane took
his family to West Africa where he helped to raise awareness and money
for the World Vision famine relief organization. That experience shaped
his next album Mad Mad World which contained the internationally
acclaimed hit single "Life is a Highway".

The three-CDbox setAshes to
Diamonds, including material by both Red Rider and Cochrane as a
solo artist, was released in 1993.

In 1995, he released Ragged Ass Road
and followed that with a Canadian tour in 1996. The tour resulted in Songs
of a Circling Spirit, a live CD
and multi-media package of previously released material.

In June 1999, Cochrane was involved in a
light plane crash in Montreal, after one of the wings came off in a
grove of trees. Fortunately, no one was injured.

At the 2003 Juno Awards, Tom Cochrane
was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. The special award
ceremony took place April 5, 2003 at Casino du Lac-Leamy in Ottawa,
Ontario.

In December 2003 he was one of the
musical guests on a CBC special called, Rick Mercer's Christmas in
Kabul.
He currently lives with his family in
Oakville, Ontario.
On July 2nd, 2005, Tom took part in the
Live 8 concert series.